TRANSITION FROM MEDITATION
TO COMTEMPLATION
According to St. John of the Cross(1)

by Father Laurian Zabalza,
OCD

I. INTRODUCTION

This topic touches a very sensitive aspect of spiritual
development. It refers to a particular stretch of the prayer-life process,
through which the person advances toward greater growth and maturity.

On the level of sanctifying union, which is the immediate
effect and expression of God's indwelling, the theological virtues take
over man's supernatural operations. By giving Himself, God has created
in man the capability for receiving and responding to Him. Through these
infused powers, called theological virtues, man enters into immediate contact
with God and develops his communion with Him.

The theological virtues "are the means and dispositions
for the soul's union with God;"(2) but they are
not exercised in a purely vertical or disincarnate relationship with God.
The purpose of theological virtues is to make a theological person; and
the person lives and embodies such an attitude and potentialities in all
his acts. The person's theological expressions are as numerous as his operations.
In accordance with our topic we will see the underlying dynamism and expression
of theological virtues in the development of a particular point of prayer-life,
namely, the transition from meditation to contemplation. Meditation is
inspired and sustained by the theological virtues, and contemplation is
experienced in faith, or, even more, "is faith."(3)

To reflect on the transition from meditation to contemplation
requires us to deal succinctly with both forms of prayer, meditation and
contemplation, and with the crisis produced by the transition. The change
is only detected by the signs which show forth the presence of contemplation
since initial contemplation is not perceived in itself, but in the effect
of passive purification it produces in the person. The person should be
aware of the new situation in order to act in accord with the requirements
of contemplation. Therefore, we shall touch the following points: 1) meditation,
2) contemplation, 3) crisis of transition, 4) signs of contemplation, 5)
experience of initial contemplation 6) 'passive night of the sense' and
7) norms of conduct for the initial phase of 'passive night of the sense.'

II. MEDITATION

Meditative prayer is one of the first and most basic expressions
of theological life in the teaching of St. John of the Cross. God in his
self-giving revelation to man has provided, besides his gratuitous presence,
the interior dynamism and necessary stimulus to acknowledge, accept and
develop their mutual relationship. God dwells within, but the person must
look for Him, and this takes place in "discursive meditation, in which
an individual begins his quest for God."(4) It
is not enough to know that God is present. Faith requires mutual awareness
and interaction. Man needs to reflect upon and deepen the knowledge of
God's nature and words, to listen and interpret His Word Incarnate, to
discover His will and put it into personal practice. To comply with these
basic requirements the beginner in the spiritual life instinctively resorts
to meditation.

In St. John's works the explanation of meditation is almost
taken for granted. He does not write to explain its nature, role, method
or techniques. There was enough written material about it. His main concern
is to show that there are other and far more advanced forms of communication
with God, toward which the person should be tending. Meditation is good,
normal and beneficent, nevertheless to close himself in it would mean to
resign himself to always remain a beginner and be condemned to stagnation.
Meditation is neither the only one, nor the best form of prayer. It is
only a preliminary and transitory form of dealing with God that must be
superseded as soon as possible. Meditation is not the real thing, but the
foretaste that announces and stimulates the desire for greater reality.
The person should always remain open and striving for more.

St. John's teaching efforts are not centered on meditation,
but rather in helping people to leave meditation behind and advance ahead
toward union with God. He has found too many good people in his ministry
who, for one reason or another, were unable to detach themselves from meditation
and seriously impaired their spiritual growth. He describes the painful
situation as he found it in those around him in these terms:

"Even though these souls have begun to walk along
the road of virtues, and our God desires to place them in the dark night
so they may move on to the divine union, they do not want to enter the
dark night or allow themselves to be placed in it, and sometimes they misunderstand
themselves and are without suitable and alert directors who will show the
way to the summit."(5)

Keeping in mind this sad situation of confusion, stagnation
and regression, John of the Cross decides to clarify the path of prayer
and explain the internal laws of its development. He confesses that the
task is difficult, but extremely important:

"I am not undertaking this arduous task because of
any particular confidence in my abilities. Rather, I am confident that
the Lord will help me explain this matter, because it is extremely necessary
to so many souls."(6)

With this point in mind, St. John assumes the transition
from meditation to higher forms of prayer as the converging point in which
he centers his doctrinal preoccupation. This transitional phase can be
considered as the intentional point of departure, according to his repeated
assertions, But, of course, he cannot begin with the moment of transition
without taking, at least succinctly, account of the precedent meditative
period. In fact, without forgetting this intention, our author practically
expands the angle of his study and makes the point of departure of his
doctrine the grace of conversion, by which the person "has been resolutely
converted to God's service."(7)

A. INTERIOR REFLECTION

In St. John's teaching mental prayer or meditation is
characterized by the preponderance of interior reflection and affection
that is nourished and sustained by faith. He views meditation along the
traditional lines. The person collects some truths or material with the
cooperation of the exterior senses and imagination, upon which he applies
his discursive reflection to draw some knowledge from it and stimulate
his affection.

Many readers may be shocked by St. John's position, making
meditation a 'sensory activity.' He affirms that meditation is "to
work with the imagination,"(8) and qualifies
such a prayerful activity as "imaginative way or sensory meditation."(9)
The whole man is involved in meditative prayer, but St. John joins meditation
with the interior senses of imagination and fantasy:

"Meditation is the work of these two faculties, since
it is a discursive act built upon forms, figures, and images, imagined
and fashioned by these senses. For example: the imagining of Christ crucified,
or at the column, or in some other scene; or of God seated upon a throne
with resplendent majesty; or the imagining and considering of glory as
a beautiful light, etc.; or the picturing of any other human or divine
object imaginable."(10)

The remark is important, not merely to appreciate the
sensory participation in the mental and affective activity of the person,
but to grasp the characterizing elements of meditation in contrast with
the contemplative form of prayer. Meditation is carried out by man's spiritual
faculties, intellect and will, but involves sensory activity, and its valuable
contribution to the spiritual life is sustained and limited by the values
and shortcomings of the senses. Meditation is activity of the 'sense,'
it "is wholly sensible,"(11) while contemplation
will be activity and life of the 'spirit.'(12)

The work of meditation is inspired and demanded by faith,
but it is stimulated and sustained by the satisfactions it produces. The
beginner in spiritual exercise is not strong enough to be totally motivated
and guided by the teaching and demands of faith. This will come later at
the advanced stages of the spiritual life; at present the individual is
not so highly tuned and needs more sensible and tangible gratifications.
To a great extent religious pleasure is what inspires and moves the person
to act in the beginning of spiritual development. If before the person
was drawn by sinful gratifications, the grace of conversion embodies deeper
and more satisfying pleasure. Without religious pleasure the change of
life would have been psychologically hindered, if not altogether impossible.
Sinful pleasure is only supplanted by deeper and more gratifying pleasure.
In St. John's words:

"A more intense enkindling of another, better love.
. . is necessary for the vanquishing of the appetites and the denial of
this pleasure."(13)

God supplies this psychological need and motivation by
pouring his tenderness and comforting favors on the feeble child that is
the beginner in the spiritual life.

"The grace of God acts just as a loving mother by
re-engendering in the soul new enthusiasm and fervor in the service of
God. With no effort on the soul's part, this grace causes it to taste sweet
and delectable milk and to experience intense satisfaction in the performance
of spiritual exercises, because God is handing the breast of His tender
love to the soul, just as if it were a delicate child."(14)

Sensible pleasure is God's kind response to the efforts,
needs, and capabilities of the beginner.(15) Moved
and sustained by the fervor generated by God's grace, the beginner undertakes
his obligations and spiritual exercises with great enthusiasm, dedication
and joy. Everything seems to be easy, marvelous and rewarding. The spiritual
euphoria is so strong and delightful that holiness and perfect union with
God don't look to be too far away. There is no spiritual enterprise too
strenuous or arduous. St. John explains the religious experience of this
period in these terms:

"The soul finds its joy in spending lengthy periods
at prayer, perhaps even entire nights; its penances are pleasures; its
fasts, happiness; and the sacraments and spiritual conversations are its
consolations."(16)

Nowadays the embodiments are different, but the moral
and psychological motivations are the same. Today's preferences are not
commonly centered on fast and penances, but the self-gratifying impulse
is identical. The one-sided emphasis in various and ever-changing liturgical
celebrations, the constant search for emotionally self-fulfilling prayer
groups and various religions are different variations and tonalities of
the same melody; religious self-satisfaction. The forms change, but the
underlying principles remain unchanged. The beginner searches for God,
spiritual things and exercises because of the religious feelings and gratifying
experiences he enjoys.

St. John at this moment registers the underlying self-seeking
motivation and explains the benefits of the religious experiences. Self-seeking
motivation in spiritual things is very selfish and sensible, but it becomes
indispensable at the beginning. Later the self-seeking promptings will
be put under control and supplanted, but at present it is the only inspiration
and force of his actions.

Meditative prayer is the place and central generator of
the sensible delights and fervors that animate and strengthen the beginner.
Due to our rational and cold formation, or to the bias of excessive emotionalism,
we tend to depreciate and neglect such fervors and sensory pleasures as
mere emotional or psychological reflexes. But this is not the position
of St. John of the Cross. Although it may appear to many paradoxical, or
even contradictory, St. John not only mentions and describes the sensible
pleasure, but also approves and appraises it in his system He values the
sensible fervors and satisfactions as genuine graces come from God. He,
better than anybody else, knows how superficial and sensory these feelings
may be; nevertheless, he recognizes their divine origin and the important
role they fulfill at this stage. Later on, at the opportune moment,(17)
they must be left behind as useless and even harmful, but at the beginning
they are necessary and extremely beneficent;(18) without
them the normal and gradual progress would be dangerously impaired.

B. ITS PURPOSE

The person seriously dedicated to God's service must apply
himself, with the help of grace, to the twofold aspect of his conversion;
to increase the knowledge and love, and therefore, his attachment to God,
and to eradicate his attachments and inclinations to sinful or worldly
things. Meditation, with the mental reflection and sensible affection it
generates, contributes to the attainment of such an important goal. In
fact, we can summarize the purpose assigned to meditation in the juanistic
system in the following points:

1. To get a loving knowledge and affection for God.(19)

2. To get some disposition to deal with spiritual things
through the senses.(20)

3. To get some detachment from worldly things.(21)

4. To acquire some virtues.(22)

5. To get ready for contemplation.(23)

The period of meditation could be more or less protracted.
There is no uniform abstract pattern to be followed. Every person has different
needs and capabilities, and God's grace follows the rhythm of personal
growth. God does not easily dispense with the psychological and spiritual
laws of growth and maturity; and these require, beside God's grace and
man's dedication, time to be developed. In abstract terms we may say that
meditation will last as long as the above-mentioned goals are not satisfactorily
attained.

C. OTHER FORMS OF PRAYER

Meditation requires time, but in time meditation must
be given up and supplanted by other forms of prayer. St. John has a very
positive and sympathetic approach to the beginners and their meditative
prayer; but he strongly criticizes the mentality and attitudes of all those
who, misled by their own selfishness, tepidity and ignorance, or by the
wrong advice given by daring and unexperienced spiritual directors,(24)
would like to stay, or would force others to remain in this stage. Meditative
prayer is a normal, useful and necessary form of prayer, but initial and
transitory as well. Prayer to grow and mature must transcend the structure
and mechanism of meditation and assume new, higher and more refined and
interior forms of communion with God.

Meditative payer, being so profitable and indispensable
at the beginning, is not applicable to the entire spiritual road. Its efficiency
is sharply limited. The purpose assigned to meditation by St. John is not
to effect union with God - that transcends the possibilities of meditation
- but to reorientate the person toward God and dispose him for contemplation
through the knowledge and love it produces and the virtues it generates.
In view of the union with God meditation stands as a mediate and remote
means.(25)

In the practice of prayer a moment arrives when the person
has developed all the potentialities of meditation. The meditative technique
does not allow any further development. By means of it the person can obtain
neither greater knowledge nor deeper love for God; his meditative power
of assimilation is saturated. To grow is necessary to change; but this
change cannot be induced by man. The person is neither able to clearly
evaluate his spiritual level to see if the goal of meditation has been
reached, nor has any power to fix the moment of change. Any gradual change
in man's relation with God has to come from God, since progress is only
achieved when God, in his loving self giving, expands man's receptivity.
When the person "has acquired the substantial and habitual spirit
of meditation"(26) and the benefits of meditation
have sufficiently conditioned and fortified the endurance of the beginner
to undertake greater and more important enterprise,(27)
God weans him of meditative prayer and introduces him into a new and loftier
form of prayer, called contemplation.

III. CONTEMPLATION

The grace of contemplation not only effects a different
and higher form of prayer, it also marks the presence of new factors, new
mechanism, new methods, new results. By means of meditation man searches
for God; in contemplation it is God who searches for man. Contemplation
produces new mutual relationship, new interior place, new experiences,
and new encounter. Meditation was a remote and superficial way of dealing
with God; contemplation is the proper and adequate means of relating to
God and the place wherein the perfect union and transformation will take
place. In contemplation the most sublime moments of God's self giving to
man will be celebrated. The transition from meditation to contemplation
opens the door and foretells promising spiritual realizations.

A. DESCRIPTIONS

Numerous are St. John's descriptions of contemplation.
For our purpose let us register a few of them:

"Contemplation is nothing else than a secret and
peaceful and loving inflow of God, which, if not hampered, fires the soul
in spirit of love."(28)

"This dark night is an inflow of God into the soul,
which purges it of its habitual ignorances and imperfections, natural and
spiritual, and which the contemplatives call infused contemplation or mystical
theology. Through this contemplation, God teaches the soul secretly and
instructs it in the perfection of love without its doing anything nor understanding
how this happens."

"Insofar as infused contemplation is loving wisdom
of God, it produces two principal effects in the soul: it prepares the
soul for the union with God through love by both purging and illumining
it. Hence the same loving wisdom that purges and illumines the blessed
spirits, purges and illumines the soul here on earth."(29)

"Contemplation is a high place where God in this
life begins to communicate and show Himself to the soul, but not completely.
However sublime may be the knowledge God gives the soul in this life, it
is but like a glimpse of Him from a great distance."(30)

B. STRUCTURES

The theological and psychological structure of contemplation
includes,. in one way or another, the following elements: the giver and
agent of contemplation (God through his Holy Spirit), the recipient of
contemplation (the person in his passive powers of the intellect and will),
the content of contemplation (its divine inflow of dark knowledge and love),
and the purpose of effects of it (the person's purification and communion
with God).

In the meditative phase the person was searching for God,
extracting some knowledge and love from his discursive and affective activity.
Meditation has been the result of man's work and commitment. God rewards
and crowns such a persevering and faithful dedication by making himself
present and active. "God is now the worker"(31)
and takes over the initiative and the plan to be carried out. Undoubtedly
God has always been the main worker and promoter of spiritual progress.
In fact, "it cost God a great deal to bring these souls to this stage
and He highly values his work of having introduced them into this solitude
and emptiness."(32) But it is now when His presence
and activity becomes clearer and more efficient, since the person does
not know how or where to move.

"The soul should advert that God is the principal
agent in this matter, and that He acts as the blind man's guide who must
lead it by the hand to the place it does not know how to reach: to supernatural
things of which neither its intellect, will, nor memory can know the nature."(33)

"Since He is the supernatural artificer, He will
construct supernaturally in each soul the edifice He desires."(34)

"God in this state is the agent and the soul is the
receiver."(35)

"But God acts through the hidden and powerful unctions
of the Holy Spirit,(36) who is the chief agent, guide
and mover of the soul."(37)

C. CONTENT

The object or content of contemplation is an inflow of
dark and general knowledge and love. Contemplation can be more or less
pure;(38) in its pure act God does not grant some
grace or favor, as separated from Himself. Contemplation is not the infusion
of dark knowledge and love about God. It is not a means by whose power
or extension the person could reach out to God. It is God self giving to
the person. God is not only the giver of contemplation, He is also the
gift and the given. Knowledge and love are the only means in which or by
which He can be adequately received and enjoyed by man; and such perception
is dark or general because it transcends the connatural(39)
and clear knowledge of human experience. Dark knowledge and love are the
proper effect and awareness produced by God's immediately self giving to
the person.

St. John repeatedly teaches that contemplation is nothing
else than God giving Himself. The content of contemplation is described,
among other, in the following juanistic terms:

"In this loving awareness God communicates Himself."(40)

"He revealed some deep glimpses of his Divinity and
beauty."(41)

"A strong and overflowing communication and glimpse
of what God is in Himself."(42)

"By means of this loving and obscure knowledge, God
joins Himself to the soul in a high and divine degree."(43)

"For in the transformation of the soul in God, it
is God who communicates Himself with admirable glory."(44)

"God is divine light and love in His communication
of Himself to the soul."(45)

"God infuses Himself to the soul."(46)

"The shadow that the lamp of God's beauty casts over
the soul will be another beauty according to the measure and property of
God's beauty; and the shadow that fortitude casts over it will amount to
another fortitude commensurate with God's; and the shadow of God's wisdom
upon it will be another wisdom corresponding to God's wisdom; and so with
the other lamps. To express it better, it will be the very wisdom, and
the very beauty, and the very fortitude of God in shadow, because the soul
here cannot comprehend God perfectly. Since the shadow is so formed by
God's size and properties that it is God Himself in shadow, the soul clearly
knows God's excellence."(47)

"The Beloved revealed to her some rays of his grandeur
and divinity."(48)

"In this high state of spiritual marriage the Bridegroom
reveals His wonderful secrets to the soul, as to His faithful consort,
with remarkable ease and frequency, for true and perfect love knows not
how to keep anything hidden from the beloved. He communicates to her, mainly,
sweet mysteries of His incarnation and of the ways of redemption of mankind,
which is one of the loftiest of His works, and thus more delightful to
the soul."(49)

This sublime perspective is open to the favored person
who enters into contemplative prayer. The real depth of it will be reached
only in the last and higher communications, but every pure contemplative
act, even the initial ones, shares the quality and sublimity of God's infusion.

D. QUALITIES

Our natural way of knowing and relating to things and
people is through images, forms and ideas. Through them we are able to
understand, love, communicate and interact. But God can neither be grasped
by the senses,(50) nor by our minds.(51)
He is absolutely transcendent and ineffable, and cannot be formulated in
clear understandings or ideas. He can only be received and perceived in
the dark and loving knowledge of contemplation, that is according to the
mode of faith; and faith transcends every clear idea and understanding.
The contemplative experience is immediately given to man, without passing
through the senses or the active and knowledge-producing mind, and is received
in the passive powers of the soul.

The individual, to welcome God's self giving through contemplation,
must detach himself from his active connatural ways of knowing and loving
because there is no proportion between human, clear ideas and representations
and the divine nature. God is greater than our mind and heart. He can only
be grasped and enjoyed in general and dark knowledge and love. Contemplative
activity, by essence, is supernatural, infused, passively received, dark
and ineffable.

The divine infusion of contemplation affects man's psychological
receptivity and perception, and, consequently, it changes and innovates
his way of communicating with God. Until now the way of searching for and
relating to God has been based on the mechanism of meditative prayer, where
man is in control of his natural activity and produces new ideas, understandings
and love; now God makes Himself present, and there is no need of looking
after His footprints. As a result, meditation is surpassed and ceases.
Theoretically it should be a very happy occasion: a great and decisive
improvement has taken place; the poor, sensory, natural and superficial
meditative mechanism disappears to be succeeded by the supernatural, infused
contemplative activity. Experientially, nevertheless, it does not look
so enjoyable a situation. Meditative prayer is over, but with it all its
spiritual securities and consolations are also gone. Contemplation is present,
but unnoticed. This creates a new, but delicate psychological and spiritual
position. The transition from meditation to contemplation is wonderful
and invaluable, but it does not happen without anxieties and pain. Since
one does not leave the meditative practice until he enters into the habit
of supernatural contemplation, there is a long stretch marked by special
crisis and mixed experiences. Let us see the main feelings that accompany
the transition.

IV. CRISIS OF TRANSITION

The differences between meditation and contemplation are
deep and many. With the grace of contemplation a new state in spiritual
life begins. The transition from meditation to contemplation has the role
of a bridge or ladder that, taking leave of the natural ground and operation
of his own efforts and activity, connects and joins at the other extreme
with divine and supernatural operation. The transition or bridge is God's
work. The person has labored hard to reach that point of spiritual growth,
but left alone, cannot pass over to the other side. Man cannot reach out,
gain or merit God. God cannot be overcome or reached by man's struggle
and efforts. He only gives himself freely and lovingly to those whom He
has previously disposed and given the desire, hunger and longing for Him.
The invitation to contemplation is God's wonderful gift, but the person
must receive it and cooperate or comply with it. And this is not too easy.
God's way of being and acting with man is always mysterious and surprising
for the human mind. Through meditation man has been able to deal with God
in a connatural and human manner; in contemplation God deals with man in
a divine and supernatural way. The change is radical, and it does not happen
without confusion and pain. Everything new surprises and disconcerts, especially
when it is not clearly identified or understood. The transition from meditative
prayer to contemplation causes a serious and painful crisis.

The confusion is originated around the new situation of
the person and the values of his religious experiences. Since the moment
of conversion the person has been able to know where he stands in regard
to God, to human relations and the practice of Christian virtues. It has
not been easy, but he has managed to remain faithful in his commitment
to God, in his spiritual or religious exercises and in the practice of
Christian living. Everything was well coordinated and compact. Meditation
was the converging and animating focus of his life and the source of his
strength. Because he has prayed well, he has been able to advance and gain
good results. He finds deeper and better harmony in the self, greater control
of his passions, lesser sins, greater spontaneity in the practice of virtues,
and especially easier communication with God. He has been able to taste
the goodness of the Lord. Although he is not self-complacent, he is really
satisfied and grateful for the success obtained, and is ready to continue
in the same way, thinking that "such procedure is a permanent requirement"
for his future progress.(52)

The good past experiences prove to him that the path of
future spiritual development will be similar to the past, with the advantageous
difference that the more he advances the better his communion with God
and the easier the practice of virtues will be. The spiritual satisfaction
he has experienced and the good works performed assure him that he is in
the right path. To go ahead - he thinks - only requires dedication and
perseverance. But the spiritual journey is not so simple, homogeneous and
lineal. Too often to go ahead means to go deeper, and to work harder and
more efficiently, which means not to hinder God's plan and activity. The
interior journeys are not defined by length and quantity, but by quality
and simplicity. To go ahead does not correspond to being happy and satisfied,
but to become more obedient and submissive to God's will. To take for granted
that the future progress will follow the same meditative pattern could
be natural, but surprisingly mistaken.

A. NO SPIRITUAL JOY

In the meditative exercise a moment arrives when the person
in spite of his best dispositions cannot go on, and begins feeling fears
and anxieties. He gradually becomes aware that he is unable to recollect
his intellect and imagination any longer, and that he cannot draw the spiritual
joy and strength from the things he used to consider with so great affection.
Little by little he realizes that it is not a bad moment or a temporary
indisposition. The experience is prolonged and this makes it more alarming.
The person is, as never before, interested in loving God, performing good
works and faithfully fulfilling his duties, but everything seems to be
ineffectual. The more he works, the less he is able to concentrate his
powers and put himself in communication with God.

A short time ago he thought that everything was fine and
reassuring; he was enjoying everything and his plans were as good as ever.
Suddenly, without previous warning, everything has been changed and he
is frightened. In this term, St. John describes the change:

"It is at this time they are going about their spiritual
exercises with delight and satisfaction, when in their opinion the sun
of divine favor is shining most brightly on them that God darkens all this
light and closes the door and spring of the sweet spiritual water they
were tasting as often and as long as they desired. For since they were
weak and tender, no door was closed to them. God now leaves them in such
darkness that they do not know which way to turn in their discursive imaginings;
they cannot advance a step in meditation, as they used to, now that the
interior sensory faculties are engulfed in this night."(53)

The divine graces, as well as the beginner's fervors and
consolations, so clearly felt in the past, are now either faded away or
wrapped in darkness. What is happening? In man's perception it is something
frightful and alarming, although, in fact, something extremely good and
decisive: the transition from meditation to contemplation, the transition
from the human, sensory and inadequate way of dealing with God, to a new,
supernatural and divine way of communication. God is coming to man. But
the person involved does not recognize such a progress and benefit; quite
the contrary, on the level of psychological perception, what is happening
is disconcerting and alarming. He is not aware of getting anything, while
becoming more keenly aware that the good and comforting graces of the past
are lost. Through dedication and constancy the person has been able to
acquire the habit of prayer; and now, when he is so solicitous about God's
matters, finds himself empty-handed.

Looking at his past, he realizes that he has been persevering
and faithful; what he does not recognize is the fact that he has attained
everything that could be reached through these means, and that he is meditatively
saturated and cannot proceed ahead in the same way. A change is required,
but not the one planned by the person. He wants to go back to his sensible
fervors and satisfactions, to his past experiences and consolations; but
surprisingly the more he tries to go back to his known method of prayer,
the less he is able to pray and find peace and serenity of mind. With it
the hope of going ahead and fastening his march toward God seems to vanish.

B. TEMPTATION

At this moment a serious temptation could present itself:
to view the past under the impression of the present crisis. Has the past
been something real, positive, constructive, or a mere emotion and self-illusion
that is de-masqueraded by the reality of the present dryness, doubts and
confusions? If God were present, where is He now, when He is so badly needed?
Is it worthwhile to go on this way? Which are the alternatives?

If the person rejects the idea of going back to his past
fervors and sensible consolations and the serious temptation of giving
up the practice of prayer and searching for worldly satisfactions, he will
be gradually introduced into contemplative prayer. But to gain that he
must remain faithful in prayer and endure the crisis.

The crisis that accompanies the transition from meditation
to contemplation is so difficult and strenuous that St. John is moved to
write about it, to clarify the situation and help those people enduring
it. With this preoccupation in mind he explains the factors involved in
this critical situation and the attitude that the person is supposed to
keep to endure the trial securely and profitably. He is convinced that
his doctrine is "extremely necessary to many souls;"(54)
and the reason is because too many are confused and disorientated.

"God gives many souls the talent and grace for advancing,
and should they desire to make the effort they would arrive at this high
state. And so it is sad to see them continue in their lowly method of communion
with God because they do not want to know how to advance, or because they
receive no direction on breaking away from methods of beginners. Even if
our Lord finally comes to their aid to the extent of making them advance
without these helps, they reach the summit much later, expend more effort,
and gain less merit, because they do not willingly adapt themselves to
God's work of placing them on the pure and reliable road leading to union.
Although God does lead them - since He can do so without their cooperation
- they do not accept his guidance. In resisting God who is conducting them,
they make little progress, and their merit is lessened, because they do
not apply their wills, and as a result they must endure greater suffering.
Some souls instead of abandoning themselves to God and cooperating with
Him, hamper Him by their indiscreet activity or resistance. They resemble
children who kick and cry, and struggle to walk by themselves when their
mothers want to carry them; in walking by themselves they make no headway,
or if they do, it is at child's pace."(55)

The person is put in a new, higher and unknown situation,
and he feels lost, disoriented, confused, without knowing where he stands
or where he is going. God is inviting and introducing him into the new
form of contemplative prayer, but he does not recognize such divine action;
he only feels his own darkness and anguish, since he has lost what he possessed
and been substituted by aridity arid confusion. On the level of man's perception
everything seems to be bad. It is the nature of transition to love the
past and confront something different and new. There is fear at being divested
of the well known and secure past experiences and being unable to identify
and quietly accept the new situation. This critical moment marks the beginning
of the passive purification that will be developed under the presence of
contemplation and that we will study later on. The crisis is basically
due to the fact that the person is unable to recognize the contemplation
and comply with its demands.

The inability to identify the contemplation proceeds from
the psychological disposition of the person. Objectively there are recognizable
symptoms of the presence of contemplation, but for the person it is something
so new, different and unexpected that it is not immediately identified.
It requires time and peace of mind; some times it will only be recognized
with the help and assurance of spiritual directors, who will explain the
laws of spiritual development and point out the new and positive factors
that accompany the crisis. Little by little he will be able to quiet down
and find some sort of peace and consolation, realizing that what he is
experiencing is neither his deviation from the right path of prayer, nor
God's abandonment, but the normal crisis that accompanies the transition
from meditation to contemplation, the change from the life of the sense
to the life of the spirit.(56)

How can the person discern the positive values of the
new situation and discern the symptoms of spiritual progress? Which are
the signs through which it is possible to recognize the crisis and identify
the presence of contemplation?

V. SIGNS OF CONTEMPLATION

At this delicate and crucial moment of spiritual growth
to identify the factors involved and to assume an appropriate attitude
is vital, since it means to advance or to retrogress. St. John, deeply
concerned with this critical moment, has repeatedly touched the point and
given the main characteristics or signs that prove that contemplation is
present. This piece of teaching is really vital and decisive. To neglect
or dismiss it could be tragic, as St. John complains; and to precipitate
or to delay it could mean serious damage.(57) To make
the right diagnosis at the right time guarantees the right treatment.

Although the doctrine is explicitly expounded in Living
Flame of Love, the more direct and orderly explanation is found in Ascent
of Mount Carmel and Dark Night.(58) In these places
St. John gives us three signs by which the presence of contemplation can
be recognized and proved.

Dark Night 1. 9

1. Lack of satisfaction either in God's things or in creatures.

"The first is that as these souls do not get satisfaction
or consolation from the things of God, they do not get any from creatures
either."

2. Solicitous care about not serving God.

"The second sign . . . is that the memory ordinarily
turns to God solicitously and with painful care, and the soul thinks it
is not serving God but turning back, because it is aware of this distaste
for the things of God."

3. Impossibility to meditate.

"The third sign . . . is that the powerlessness,
in spite of one's efforts, to meditate and make use of the imagination
. . . as was one's previous custom."

Ascent 2, 13

1. Impossibility to meditate.

"The first is the realization that one cannot make
discursive meditation nor receive satisfaction from it as before. Dryness
is now the outcome of fixing the senses upon subjects which formerly provided
satis-faction."

2. Disinclination and dissatisfaction of the imagina-tion
to be fixed on particular objects.

"The second sign is an awareness of a disinclination
to fix the imagination or sense faculties upon other particular objects,
exterior of interior."

3. Loving awareness of God.

"The third and surest sign is that a person likes
to remain alone in loving awareness of God, without particular considerations,
in interior peace and quiet and repose, and without the acts and exercises
. . . of the intellect, memory and will . . ."

The signs in the Ascent and in the Dark Night are essentially
the same. The only difference is in the third sign of Ascent (loving awareness
of God), in relation to the second of Dark Night (solicitous care about
not serving God). While in the Ascent the emphasis is put in the 'loving
attention' and peaceful awareness, in the Dark Night the analysis stresses
the dissatisfaction and lack of consolation that the person feels under
God's action (first sign) and the care and painful solicitude of not serving
God.

In the Ascent the immediate effect of contemplation, which
appears as loving, tranquil, peaceful and joyful, is 'loving awareness'
or peaceful attentiveness to God, while in the Dark Night contemplation,
which appears as dry, purgative and painful, produces, as its first effect,
solicitous and painful care for God. The different characteristics denote
different chronological moments of contemplation, that must not be opposed,
but complemented, as it is clearly stated by St. John:

"This loving knowledge is communicated in the beginning
through the exercise of interior purgation, in which the individual suffers,
as we said, and afterwards in the delight of love."(59)

The explanation given by St. John in those places is easy
to understand. The probative force lies in the conjunction of the three
signs. The mere lack of satisfaction, whether in God's things or in creatures,
could be explained either by negligence or natural indisposition. The decisive
and surest sign is the loving awareness and solicitude about not serving
God. This can be explained neither by personal indifference - "the
lukewarm person does not care much for the things of God, nor is he inwardly
solicitous about them"(60) - nor by natural indisposition
or sickness. This sensibility and anxiety about God is the first formal
effect of contemplation, and it means that God, given in loving knowledge(61)
is drawing the person to Himself. The effects of contemplation are greater
union with God and purification, and consequently disinterest and dissatisfaction
from worldly things.

If one would like to reflect on the signs and see their
mutual interrelation, he should previously study the nature of contemplation
and derive from it all the effects caused in the psychological perception.
The signs are not mutually caused or interacting; they are explained in
virtue of the deeper cause, that is contemplation, and from which the three
manifestative symptoms come.

Contemplation, being God giving Himself to the person,
necessarily produces and intensifies the solicitude, diligence, longings
and communication with God. When the person, in the midst of dryness, remains
faithful and committed to the search of God, to the practice of virtues
and the fulfillment of his duties, we may say that he is under God's special
and contemplative influence;(62) he is unable to meditate
because God is leading him into a more interior logical prayer or prayer
of faith. Not to experience anything of this sort would mean lack of authentic
contemplation. If there is, and while there is, authentic contemplation,
meditation, as discursive reflection, becomes impossible. The subject is
deeply engaged and immersed in passively receiving God's self giving in
knowledge and love, and there is neither possibility nor any convenience
in actively engaging in anything else. Any active effort along the line
of mental discourse and particular loving acts would hinder or seriously
impair God's operation in the person.

The same fact explains the dissatisfaction in fixing the
imagination on particular objects. Neither good nor bad things are able
to grasp the interest and greediness of the imagination. If the will is
interested in other objects, the imagination is abandoned to itself and
is a lost vagabond.

There are other concomitant symptoms and feelings at this
time, but the registered ones are the more relevant and indicative of the
new situation. The person who, after being persevering and faithful to
the practice of prayer and Christian virtues, finds himself at this juncture,
may take for granted that he is not regressing in the spiritual road or
being abandoned by God, but that he is in the right track and doing well;
even more, that he is experiencing the first and valuable fruits of contemplation.

VI. EXPERIENCE OF CONTEMPLATION

It is one thing to have received the grace of contemplation,
and another and different thing to be aware of it. The three signs, already
registered in St. John's teaching, are indicative of the presence of contemplation,
but they don't say anything about the conscious experience of it. Since
we tend to equate one thing with the other, it may be useful to distinguish
both aspects and evaluate both of them separately. Our point responds to
the question: does the person consciously experience (the presence of)
initial contemplation? The person may possess real infused contemplation
without being aware of it.

Contemplation essentially is God giving Himself to the
person in the form of dark, general knowledge and love; but the person
entering into contemplation does not perceive the divine communication,
but his own sentiments and reactions of confusion and anxiety. Up until
now the person has been involved in the active work of discursive meditation,
"which is wholly sensible,"(63) and has
been able to notice his own active involvement, the sensible graces and
fervors, and the good results obtained. With the grace of contemplation,
something unusual happens that disconcerts the person. First of all, he
notices that he cannot meditate any longer. At the same time he realizes
that he is not interested in worldly things; in their regard he only feels
disgust. His only concern is God and spiritual things, but he feels helpless
relating to Him, in spite of his increased efforts. The person becomes
aware of a new situation wherein he has lost his well-known road and cannot
figure out where he is or what he is doing.

God has not abandoned him, but He acts in such a lofty
and delicate way that the person, accustomed to perceptible and sensible
things and fervors, cannot notice either God's presence or His action.
St. John explains the reason of such unawareness:

"At the beginning of this state the loving knowledge
is almost unnoticeable. There are two reasons for this: first, ordinarily
the incipient loving knowledge is extremely subtle and delicate, and almost
imperceptible; second, a person who is habituated to the exercise of meditation,
which is wholly sensible, hardly perceives or feels this new, insensible,
purely spiritual experience. This is especially so when through failure
to understand it he does not permit himself any quietude, but strives after
the other more sensory experience."(64)

The failure to understand can be aggravated by the painful
mental confusion that affects the person at this moment.(65)
There are only indirect signs or indications, no direct awareness of contemplation.(66)
The person does not perceive the initial contemplation in itself, but only
in the effects it produces. These can be summarized in the following points:

1. Experience of dryness and void.(67)

2. Experience of withdrawal into solitude.(68)

3. Experience of habitual care and solicitude for God.(69)

4. Experience of interior strength and energy.(70)

All these sentiments are contained in the following quote:

"The reason for this dryness is that God transfers
His goods and strength from sense to spirit. Since the sensory part of
the soul is incapable of the goods of spirit, it remains deprived, dry,
and empty, and thus, while the spirit is tasting, the flesh tastes nothing
at all and becomes weak in its work."

"But the spirit through this nourishment grows stronger
and more alert, and becomes more solicitous than before about not failing
God. If in the beginning the soul does not experience this spiritual savor
and delight, but dryness and distaste, it is because of the novelty involved
in this exchange."(71)

A. GOD PRESENT AND ACTIVE

God is present and active, drawing the person to Himself
and detaching him from sinful or vain affections, but He can only be noticed
by the effects He produced. The exterior and superficial surface of life
continues the same way, with the same schedule, with the same occupations;
but the interior dispositions and feelings begin somehow to change. God
is especially intervening and putting the foundation for further and deeper
reform and better natural communication. This obviously disturbs the weak
securities of the person; but it is necessary to shake false securities
and illusions to establish the communion with God on firm ground, and accommodate
the human way of being and acting to the supernatural requirements of God's
presence and action.

To experience the presence of God the person needs to
be "gradually prepared by means of this dark and obscure night"(72)
of uncertainties, fears and confusion caused by contemplation. Contemplation's
first task is not to reveal God's presence, but to reform and change the
person, so that he will be sensitive, open, and free enough to communicate
with God in a spiritual way. Contemplation, before producing conscious
presence, union and enjoyment, causes darkness and pain. God is too great
and deep and light-filled to be perceived by rough sensitivity. God is
too sublime and the person needs to be more conditioned to His nature and
communicability. And it is God Himself who carries out this special preparatory
work in the receptivity of the person through contemplation. In other words,
God through contemplation disposes the place of his indwelling and predisposes
the spiritual sensibility of the person to perceive and respond to God's
communication and interaction. St. John's words are clear:

"Since its palate is accustomed to these other sensory
tastes, the soul still sets its eyes on them. And since, also, its spiritual
palate is neither purged nor accommodated for so subtle a taste, it is
unable to experience the spiritual savor and good until gradually prepared
by means of this dark and obscure night, the soul rather experiences dryness
and distaste because of a lack of the gratification it formerly enjoyed
so readily."(73)

In other words, we can say that the immediate perceived
effect of God's acting through contemplation is void, darkness, night.
It may seem paradoxical that God, who is light and love, produces darkness
and night in the person, but that is the case until the receiver is conditioned
and well prepared to notice and enjoy God's mysterious communication.

At the beginning he might notice some interior attraction
into solitude and quiet, but his fears and confusion rendered him unable
to understand the nature of such feelings and follow them.

St. John's experience and wisdom prepared him to illustrate
this stretch of spiritual journey as no one had done before. He not only
identified the causes and analyzed the factors involved, but also, and
with great sensitivity and compassion, grasped the person's anguish and
trial, that he baptized with his own term, 'night, passive night of the
sense.'

VII. PASSIVE NIGHT OF THE SENSE - ITS BEGINNING

Night, in St. John's doctrinal context, is the general
atmosphere that wraps up the entire religious experience, and, even more,
the entire human existence. Man cannot clearly understand the mystery of
his own life and nature. Man's ground and destiny cannot be grasped with
clarity. Man is greater than his own mind, and the few things that man
is able to grasp are wrapped in darkness and grounded in mystery. Darkness
seems to be as close and familiar as light. Night, with its mystery of
darkness that creates privation and nothingness for the eye, impressed
the sensitive and keen perception of St. John; but he did not stop in the
sensible and mysterious spectacle of the natural night. He knew that there
are other levels of being wherein the night symbol is equally applicable
and more realistically realized. Darkness falls on the physical eyes but
also on the mind and will, and when it happens, the interior faculties,
and therefore the whole person, remain in darkness, deprived of the security
of his own plans and ideas and divested of his affection and attachments.
Man carries his night outside and inside. The exterior night with its impressive
spectacle is only an invitation to enter and observe the night, the multiple
nights, that man carries in his life.

St. John has assumed this rich term, night, to describe
and explain the darkness that falls upon human existence. Taken from the
natural experience, the symbolism of night in St. John stands for darkness,
and for what darkness produces: privation, lack of vision, confinement,
detachment, renunciation, mortification, etc. Night is the attitude of
a person who renounces or puts away things, affections or forms of being.
Its essential concept is obscurity, but obscurity stands for privation,
detachment, mortification or control. In this meaning night embraces the
entire spiritual journey, in its point of departure (giving up sinful affections),
in its path and guide, that is faith (supernatural light that blinds man's
rational light), and in its term or goal, who is God (and God cannot be
enjoyed but in darkness in this life). Darkness is man's inseparable companion
from the beginning to the end of life.

Man can only enter into himself by giving up exterior
concerns, and can reach God only by doing away with everything else. The
initiative can come either from the person who, helped with God's normal
grace, endeavors to advance and get closer to God, or from God Himself
who backs the person's efforts with the powerful means of contemplation.
According to the predominance of one of these forms, purification or night
is active or passive. On the latter case, the power of God's action is
so deep and lofty, and so distant from the experience of personal endeavor
that the person seems to do nothing but to endure it. "The faculties
are at rest, and do not work actively but passively, by receiving what
God is effecting in them."(74)

Our theme places us at the conjunction of the active and
passive purification, or in other words, in the transition from active
to passive night. (The transition from meditation to contemplation marks,
properly speaking, not the transition from active to passive purification,
since the active work must continue until the end, but rather the beginning
of the passive night.) The person has been faithful and persevering in
carrying out the purifying task; he has done as much as possible, but not
enough. God comes to his aid, with much better and efficient means. Purification
does not merely consist in giving up affections or things. A healthy detachment
is caused by a proportional attachment to God. It is only possible to give
up something, after something else has been previously acquired. The will
is only moved by affection. When God gives Himself in knowledge and love,
the receiving person cannot but feel attached to God. Consequently other
affections lose interest and cease.

God, by giving Himself in contemplation, produces in the
receiver a new night, the 'passive night of the sense.'

A. CAUSES

This passive night or purification is made up of several
elements: infused contemplation, unplanned and painful situations, natural
passivities, human conflicts, and so on. The main cause is God giving Himself
in dark knowledge and love in the passive intellect and will. The person
receives Him in a passive way without involving either his active power
of reflecting and loving or his imagination and exterior senses. Now the
activity of these spiritual (intellect and will) and sensory (imagination
and exterior senses) faculties produced the meditative prayer that was
called 'life of the sense' or sensory activity. With the arrival of the
infused and supernatural contemplation the 'sense's' natural meditative
activity is stopped and transcended. The 'sense' (exterior and interior
sensible powers, plus the natural activity of the intellect and will) stays
inhabilitated, bound, like in a void, or in darkness. This ligature of
the activity of the 'sense' is called 'passive night of the sense.'(75)

Unable to use his spiritual powers and imagination, the
person realizes that he cannot meditate, and that the more he tries, the
more unsuccessful he becomes. His efforts only produce dryness, disgust
and disquiet. The result is, on one hand, an increased solicitude and anxiety
for God, since he cannot resign himself to this situation, and on the other
hand, disappointments and pain, because he can do nothing and fears the
worst. St. John characterizes this situation with strong and dreadful adjectives:

"Dark and dry purgation"(76)

"This dry and dark night of contemplation. . ."(77)

"The soul is clothed in these other garments of labor,
dryness and desolation. . ."(78)

"Bitter and terrible to the senses."(79)

"Arid and obscure night. . ."(80)

B. INABILITY TO MEDITATE

In the first instance what perturbs and alarms the prayerful
person is to verify that he cannot continue meditating any longer. Until
now meditation has been the expression of his religious practice and commitment
to God. In it he has enjoyed the deepest and most consoling experiences.
God has generously poured his divine graces upon the soul, and with them
the knowledge and love for God has been increased. As in any living and
human exercise, there have been ups and downs in the meditative experience,
but the general impression has been good, consoling and comforting. Now
the source of his sensible graces and spiritual strength is closed down;
in its place he finds dryness, darkness and pain.(81)

The most painful verification comes from discovering that
after so much dedication, efforts, time and apparently good results, he
has to admit now that he cannot meditate any longer. By itself it should
not be too upsetting; but since unconsciously he identifies prayer with
meditation, to recognize that he can no longer meditate means for him to
be unable to pray; and this is very frightening. The more he tries to concentrate
his faculties the less he succeeds. And the greater becomes his subsequent
pain and frustration.

But he does not stop there, resigned to his fate. Anxious
about the frustrating experience, he attempts to remedy it. Unaware of
the factors involved, he blames himself for the fact of living in darkness,
dryness and difficulties. If in the past he was able to pray so well and
taste God's words and enjoy His presence and graces, and now finds himself
powerless, it must be due to some negligence and infidelity on his part.

Knowing from his own past experiences and from others
that previous aridities and distractions were caused by worldly interest,
tepidity and lukewarmness, he thinks that the present situation cannot
be different; and consequently he applies the same criteria of the past,
such as greater solicitude for God, greater detachment from worldly things
and more assiduous dedication to prayer. But without good results; quite
the contrary, the more he tries to meditate, the less he is able to concentrate
his powers to prayer. The old method (cure) does not fit the new situation.
Meanwhile his anxieties for God increase.

C. ABANDONMENT BY GOD

The inability to meditate originates a new and more serious
preoccupation: the conviction that he is gone astray from the right path
and cannot return to God, since all his efforts to recollect his faculties
and enter into communion with God in prayer seem to fail. The thought that
he may be abandoned by God and lost becomes more alarming and painful.
He wants to meditate and cannot; he loves and searches for God, and God
is not felt in any way. The result is greater frustration and disappointment.

When the person is confused and frustrated because he
is unable to solve the problem, he then has recourse to spiritual directors
but may not be greatly helped. Often enough, if they are not wise and experienced,
they will become a "hindrance and harm rather than a help."(82)
St. John's words have particular application at the beginning of the trial:

"It will happen that while an individual is being
conducted by God along a sublime path of dark contemplation and aridity,
in which he feels lost, he will encounter in the midst of the fullness
of his darknesses, trial, conflicts and temptations someone who, in the
style of Job's comforters, will proclaim that all of this is due to melancholia,
or depression, or temperament, or to some hidden wickedness, and that as
a result God has forsaken him. Therefore the usual verdict is that since
trials afflict this person, he must have lived an evil life."(83)

Still others may tell him:

"That he is falling back, since he finds no satisfaction
or consolation as he previously did in the things of God. Such talk only
doubles the trial of the poor soul, because its greatest suffering is caused
by the knowledge of its own miseries; that it is full of evil and sin is
as clear as day, and even clearer, for . . . God is the author of this
enlightenment in the night of contemplation. And when this soul finds someone
who agrees with what it feels (that these trials are all its own fault),
its suffering and distress grow without bounds. And this suffering usually
becomes worse than death. Such a confessor is not satisfied with this but,
in judging these trials to be the result of sin, he urges souls to endure
them to go over their past and make many general confessions which is another
crucifixion."(84)

At this point the dreadful thought of being abandoned
and rejected by God(85) becomes frequent and terrifying.
If the content of this fear is true, whatever has been done until now in
the spiritual field is illusory and meaningless. God has been, and still
is, his only goal, but He seems so remote and unapproachable. Accustomed
to dealing with Him through sensible ways, the person does not recognize
his new and higher presence. The inability to meditate is interpreted as
failure in prayer, and the lack of sensible enjoyment or satisfaction as
God's absence, abandonment and rejection.

The reader, who looks from the outside, as a spectator
and recognizes the factors involved, welcomes this crisis as something
new, rewarding and promising; and in fact it is so; but the person involved
perceives it as something painful, alarming and frightening. The reader
keeps in mind the moral and spiritual situation of beginners,(86)
their attachments to their selves and to their sensible prayer, the unnoticed
weakness and defects that are their lot, and see the transition to a new
state in which the situation will be corrected and improved. He knows that
it is a crisis of spiritual growth and development because God has come
to help and is acting through contemplation. For the person involved -
we can say without exaggeration - it is the first and most serious crisis
faced in the spiritual life up until now. It is something new, unknown,
unexpected and unidentifiable, which he does not know how to handle.

The misunderstanding and distortion of reality darkens
and blocks the perspective of future advancement. The inability to meditate
has apparently convulsed and shaken the entire life of the person. It shows
how much attached and identified with this sensible form of relating to
God and sensible appetites the person is. The lack of spiritual gratification
calls into serious question the entire religious set up and perturbs the
most basic values. A quote from the Dark Night vividly pictures the sufferings
that the person endures at this moment:

"Spiritual persons suffer considerable affliction
in this night owing not so much to the aridities they undergo as to their
fear of having gone astray. Since they do not find any support or satisfaction
in good things, they believe there will be no more spiritual blessings
for them and that God has abandoned them."(87)

The fear of having been abandoned by God and of having
lost the spiritual consolations is the most enduring tribulation, since
God is the most important preoccupation and the goal of his life. Now,
in fact, is when God has taken full relevance and real dimension in the
scale of values. Everything else is viewed in relation to God, and without
Him everything appears as empty and meaningless.

E. KEENER PERCEPTION OF MORAL SITUATION

The feelings of God's estrangement and dereliction can
be exaggerated by the keener discovery and reaction to his defects. When
the person is most anxious about being unworthy and despicable, he painfully
discovers the shortcomings, limitations and failures in his moral life.

Often mere psychological reactions will be interpreted
as disturbing moral faults, and involuntary and purely natural responses
will be considered infidelities and rebellions. The person will be acting
in a particular way because of his physical condition or nervous pressure,
but this involuntary way of behavior under the self-recriminatory and self-punishing
judgment appears as sinful and offensive to God. All these moral impressions,
distorted by the darkness and fears of the interior night provide a new
and corroborating proof for his pessimism and helplessness, since he thinks
God has abandoned him because of his sins.

This keen perception of sinfulness is the effect of God's
special enlightenment,(88) but the person views it
as a sign of his unworthiness and God's oblivion. Here the person falls
into the natural temptation of thinking that God is more present and pleased
when everything goes fine and satisfies the subject, and that God is displeased
and offended when the individual experiences discomforts and trials. But
the contrary is the truth.(89) God's thoughts are
not our thoughts and God's ways are not our ways. The sensory and meditative
form of relating to God through ideas, images and feelings is in principle
already excelled and superseded by a more spiritual way. God is giving
Himself to the substance or deepest interiority of the person without the
wrapping of human ideas or forms. Sensible criteria, as experienced in
meditation, are not adequate means for recognizing God's presence or action.
The more God is present, the less perceptible He becomes to sensible perceptions
and He is thought of as absent; In fact He is absent and removed, but only
to the sensible perception. The inexperienced man reacts "like the
many foolish ones who, in their lowly understanding of God, think that
when they do not understand, taste, or experience Him He is far away and
utterly concealed. The contrary belief would be truer. The less distinct
their understanding of Him, the closer they approach Him."(90)

The person thinks of himself as lost when, in fact, he
is being found, and thinks of himself as rejected by God when, in fact,
he is entering into a deeper communion with Him. The deeper knowledge of
his moral situation and the awareness of his powerlessness is the unrecognized
effect of God's special presence and action.

E. FIRST BENEFITS

To acknowledge the moral situation and powerlessness is
necessary to shake false securities and confront his own weakness, helplessness
and fears. This dreadful, but basic realization, conditions a new awareness
and prompts different and truer attitudes.

"As a result," St. John explains, "the
soul recognizes the truth about its misery, of which it was formerly ignorant."(91)

"Self-knowledge flows first from this dry night,
and . . . from this knowledge as from its source proceeds the other knowledge
of God."(92)

Convinced that by himself he is doomed to anxieties, fears,
helplessness and despair, the individual shall lean more on God's mercy
and assistance, and will pass from self-complacent and self-satisfying
positions to an attitude of humility, emptiness, self-mistrust and openness
that becomes the prerequisite for the theological openness and communication
with God. With the beginning of the passive night of the sense the person
begins acquiring the benefits that will be so remarkable for the end of
the passive night.(93) Although in its embryonic state
the personal effort, helped by contemplation, begins getting some basic
and virtuous attitudes like self-knowledge, humility, obedience, poverty
of spirit, fortitude, theological virtues, and so on. For at the end of
the passive night of the sense these, and many other virtues, will be obtained
with certain maturity.

The juanistic night is not artificially reduced to the
schedule or framework of prayer. It is not a crisis of prayer, but a personal
crisis, a crisis of life; and life overflows prayer. Man's relation to
God, to others, to the world, is changing because he is changing. The night
affects and touches, not prayer, but the person who lives, relates, prays,
works, recreates, and so on. Prayer, being the most sensitive sphere of
religious experience, registers with greater accuracy the meaning and facets
of the night; but the passive night overflows the experience of prayer
to fill the dimensions of one's life.

The supernatural infusion of contemplation originates
the most painful feelings that accompany the "bitter and terrible"
night of the sense; but it is not the only source of suffering and distress.
There are many other factors that accompany the dreadful trial. The juanistic
night is made up of "temptations, aridities and other trials, which
are all a part of the dark night."(94) The ordinary
human events become purgative factors, that on the basis of the trial the
person is undergoing, increase the confusion and corroborate the assumed
wrong interpretation. Ordinary contradictions, incompatibilities, conflicts,
sickness, etc. become new and heavy burdens that aggravate the situation
and intensify the awareness of personal weakness and unworthiness.

The crisis of the passive night of the sense is not an
abstract idea applicable to all in the same measure, but it is personalized
in each individual. The transition from meditation to contemplation, with
the feelings of dryness and anxiety, of novelty and solicitude for God,
is a common experience; but the materiality of the trial, the concrete
terms of the passive night, is different in each person. The single person,
the married, the priest, the religious feel the crisis in his or her own
and exclusive terms. The common elements of life become apt material for
the night. Nothing needs to be specially invented; everything is there;
the loneliness of the single, the trials of the married, the aridities
and doubts of the priest, the conflicts of the religious; or without specifying
for whom, loneliness, trials, aridities, doubts, conflicts, frustrations,
sickness, slanders, etc., since these experiences are, one way or another,
part of everybody's life.

These things and situations are either means of spiritual
progress or the occasion of sin, depending on the power and application
of faith, which sees God's mysterious hand hidden behind human events.

But in order to make them moments of grace and progress,
it is imperative to watch the person's behavior and to adopt an attitude
in accordance with the nature of contemplation, through which the progress
in spiritual life will be now achieved.

VIII. NORMS OF CONDUCT

This is the practical aspect of St. John's teaching. Confusion,
anguish and fears assail the person who does not recognize the new state
into which he has entered. This unawareness may occasion meaningless struggle,
spiritual stagnation, or even regression. To avoid this deplorable situation,
St. John clarifies the nature of contemplation and gives the signs to identify
it; but he does so in order to draw from it the proper norms of conduct.
Contemplation involves new agents, new factors, new mechanisms in man's
prayer-life, and therefore demands new and apt attitudes and cooperation.

The crisis of the night is aggravated because the person
takes for granted that the meditative method of prayer must be continued,(95)
but this method has already become obsolete and ineffectual, and it must
be left behind. Having arrived at this point, the soul, in order to advance
in the spiritual road, must give up its meditative form and "change
its style and mode of prayer,"(96) and the reason
is because:

"The person at this time should be guided in a manner
entirely contrary to the former."(97)

Since God is now "the chief agent, guide and mover
of souls,"(98) the person must keep in mind God's
nature and way of acting in order to assume a proper attitude and prevent
impairing God's work.

"The receiver should act according to the mode of
what is received, and not otherwise, in order to receive and keep it in
the way it is given. For as the philosophers say: Whatever is received
is received according to the mode of the receiver."(99)

In this regard St. John underlines his teaching, convinced
that the success of the crisis depends on the attitude taken and maintained
by the person. Dealing with the moment of transition, the attitude to be
taken refers to the beginning of contemplation, although proportionately
is applicable to the entire passive night of the sense. The norms of conduct
suggested by St. John can be summarized in the following points:

1. Freedom and detachment from discursive meditation.(100)

2. Patient perseverance in prayer.(101)

3. Fortitude to undergo the trial.(102)

4. Attitude of loving and peaceful attentiveness to God.(103)

5. Readiness to use meditation when it may be necessary.(104)

6. Readiness to give up the loving attentiveness.(105)

7. Trust in God's solicitude.(106)

8. Theological attitude.

The whole doctrinal explanation of St. John converges
to this practical application. With the idea of helping those entering
into the state of contemplation St. John began to write, and with the practical
norms advanced, he completes the task by letting and inviting the persons
to surrender themselves to God's direction.

"With God's help, we shall propose doctrine and counsel
for beginners and proficients that they may understand or, at least, know
how to practice abandonment to God's guidance when He wants them to advance."(107)

IX. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Please refer to the OCDS Rule of
Life, Decree, Foreword, and Articles 2, 4, 5 and
8.
2. The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, by K. Kavanaugh and O.
Rodriquez, Washington, 1973. Use of the more recent
1991 version by the same authors is encouraged,
but the footnote validity of this document may be somewhat
compromised. ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Road NE, Washington,
DC 20002-1199.